Barnett Jones in 2006. / KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

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The union representing Detroit Water and Sewerage Department security officers is calling for the resignation of security chief Barnett Jones after the Free Press revealed this week that he was working two six-figure jobs at the same time some 70 miles apart.

Jones resigned as administrator of public safety in Flint on Thursday. Officials there said they didn’t know Jones also was working as chief of security and integrity for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

“He should have been fired...,” said Michael Mulholland, vice president of AFSCME Local 207, which represents about 77 security guards and more than 800 other department employees. “When he was hired in, they changed the name to the department of security and integrity because they wanted to set a new tone. If that irony alone isn’t enough to fire him, I don’t know what is.”

Jones has not returned multiple messages from the Free Press seeking comment since his resignation.

Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Director Sue McCormick said late Friday she remains confident in Jones. The department also sent a press release Friday afternoon affirming confidence in Jones and pointing out his long background in police work.

“I would not ask him to step down,” McCormick said. “I haven’t been, in any way, dissatisfied with his service to DWSD.”

Several members of the water board commission did not return calls seeking comment Friday.

The Free Press first reported Thursday that Jones had been working both jobs.

Flint, which is in such financial straits that it is being run by an emergency financial manager, was paying him $135,000 a year. The water department is paying him $138,750.

Most of the security officers in the water department are paid $13.45 an hour after taking a 10% pay cut. The department is seeking additional concessions from them, including unpaid furloughs and higher health care premiums, Mulholland said.

Flint City Administrator Michael Brown said officials there knew nothing of Jones’ Detroit job until the Free Press called to ask about it. He commended Jones’ work but said he was disappointed that he didn’t know about the other work.

Jones told the Free Press earlier this week, before resigning from the Flint job, that he was doing justice to both jobs and described himself as a workaholic.

Outside employment by police officers has been a hotly debated topic in law enforcement circles. Most departments have policies in place governing who can moonlight and what limitations they face, said Dave Harvey, executive director of the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, which licenses the state’s police officers.

Harvey said some departments, especially smaller ones, allow it — but it typically requires approval of the chief.

“It’s all disclosed and everybody knows what everybody is doing,” Harvey said.

The water department’s employee handbook says employees can work other jobs on their own time if it doesn’t impair the department’s work. They must have a written request approved annually for the moonlighting, and work must not hurt the department’s reputation or pose a conflict of interest.

McCormick said Jones had informed her of his work in Flint, although she understood it to be part time.